The present invention relates to the field of puzzles for educational and entertainment purposes, and more particularly it relates to a system of manual assembly puzzles wherein a set of puzzle-pieces, formed from rows of tangentially-attached spheres, can be assembled in a special non-apparent manner to form a pyramid.
The pyramid as a geometric form has remained a source of fascination to mathematicians, historians and the general public alike for many centuries. The square-based pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians for royal tombs continue to grip the public imagination among the wonders of the world: historical man-made structures that remain mysterious despite scientific studies that have revealed extraordinary accomplishment in their concept, design and construction, based on mystic xe2x80x9cgolden rulesxe2x80x9d of the pyramid.
Assembling a pyramid from puzzle-pieces presents an intellectual challenge that appeals to mentally active persons of all ages whether pursued for education or simply for relaxation.
For children especially, manual assembly games and puzzles requiring hand/eye/brain co-ordination and offering a satisfying reward for their successful solution, as in the pyramid puzzles of the present invention, can contribute strongly to beneficial overall development, and have much to offer in learning and entertainment.
Many known types of manipulative puzzles have been confined to a two-dimensional end result, e.g. the conventional jig-saw puzzle. Going beyond into the third dimension has yielded approaches that utilize puzzle-pieces as building block elements in various complex shapes that could be considered analogous to a three-dimensional jig saw puzzle, with the elements ranging from the well-known children""s cubic blocks to other polyhedrons, i.e. flat-faced solid forms.
The sphere has a long history of individual usage in toys such as balls and marbles, but is not commonly found tangentially-attached in puzzle-pieces in rows or two-dimensional arrays for assembling a three-dimensional object such as pyramid.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,216,915 is of interest in disclosing a puzzle wherein a solid equilateral tetrahedral pyramid is divided into two identical solid pentahedral halves at a square interface.
U.S. Pat No. 3,945,645 utilizes tangential spheres to construct a tetrahedral pyramid with 5 spheres per edge from nine assembly pieces: eight triangular arrays and one square array.
U.S. Pat No. 5,108,100 utilizes pieces of various shapes strung is together like beads with a flexible cord.
U.S. Pat No. 3,837,652 utilizes spheres with connecting axes to construct a pentahedral pyramid from a variety of puzzle-pieces utilizing spheres adjoined at various angles including 60 degrees and 120 degrees.
Other approaches have included non-uniform sphere sizes, non-orthogonal relationship, and complex three-dimensional clusters of irregular shapes.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a system of puzzles wherein puzzle-pieces fashioned from single and multiple rows of identical attached elements can be manually assembled in a special puzzling non-apparent procedure to form an pyramid, i.e. one with all edges equal in length such that all triangular faces are equilateral.
It is a further object to provide strategically selected sets of such puzzle-pieces configured in the form of simple two-dimensional orthogonal shapes which do not suggest any relationship to a pyramid, but instead present an intellectual puzzle-solving challenge requiring considerable imaginative effort to solve since the unique solution is non-apparent, unexpected and seemingly devious.
It is a further object to form the shape of the puzzle-pieces by arranging the attached elements in one or more rows to form an orthogonal outline including that of a single row, plural attached rows forming a rectangle or L-shape, or other orthogonal shape.
It is a further objective that the puzzle-pieces be formed with the elements located orthogonal to each other and thus aligned in one or more straight rows with the element locations co-ordinated on a square grid pattern.
It is a further object of the invention to provide, as a first main embodiment, a family of puzzle sets wherein the puzzle-pieces of each set are configured such that they can be combined to form an xe2x80x9ctriangle-basedxe2x80x9d pyramid, which for purposes of this disclosure should be understood to refer to an equilateral tetrahedron, i.e. having four identical equilateral triangular faces and six equal edges.
It is a further object of the invention to provide, as a second main embodiment, a family of puzzle sets wherein the puzzle-pieces of each set are configured such that they can be combined to form a xe2x80x9csquare-basedxe2x80x9d pyramid, which refers to an equilateral pentahedron, i.e. having five faces including one square bottom face. four identical equilateral triangular faces, and eight equal edges.
It is a further object to provide systematic methods of expanding sets of both families to enable assembly of larger pyramids with increased quantities of elements and puzzle-pieces.
The foregoing objects have been met in the present invention which provides a system of pyramid puzzle sets wherein the elements that form the puzzle-pieces are configured as identical spheres tangentially attached together in one or more rows on a square grid pattern. The system includes the two families of strategically selected sets of puzzle-pieces for both types of pyramids in various sizes.
In preferred embodiments, a puzzle-pieces in a set are configured as a plurality of matched pairs in which the two puzzle-pieces are made identical with each other.
In the family of puzzle sets directed to the triangle-based type of pyramid as defined above, the puzzle-pieces in a set are provided in matched pairs which include typically one matched pair of puzzle-pieces, each having spheres arranged and joined tangentially in a single row, and one (or a series of) additional matched pair(s) of rectangular puzzle-pieces each with spheres arranged orthogonally and joined tangentially in plural rows forming a two-dimensional rectangular-shaped matrix of spheres that each form a layer in the assembly of the pyramid.
In the family of puzzle sets directed to the square-based type of pyramid as defined above: the puzzle-pieces in a set are provided in matched pairs and are configured from identical spheres arranged and attached to form shapes such as single rows, rectangles, L-shapes and other orthogonal shapes.
In both families, the sets can range from relatively simple with as few as four puzzle-pieces with two matched pairs to progressively larger sets for pyramids of any desired size as formulated in accordance with the teachings of the invention.